When my phone is in my pocket and it buzzes, I feel compelled to check it.  

I thought about that today during the podcast, when James and Peter and I were talking about the telephone and how it can rule your life. I never answer the phone, to be honest. Hate talking on it. But I do feel weirdly compelled to check my email constantly.  

Now I know why. From Psychology Today:

The bottom line is that we are finding ourselves using technology for a variety of reasons ranging from anxiety to pleasure (positive attitudes). What does it all mean? From our study alone it appears that people are using their technology for a combination of gaining some pleasure and from avoiding anxiety about not knowing what is going on at every moment on every electronic communication platform including social media. If I had to estimate the contributions to our behavior I would say that our data support about a 3:1 ratio of anxiety reduction to pleasure. We are still checking in all the time to gain a bit of pleasure (perhaps a squirt of dopamine or serotonin) but I think that what is driving our behavior of constantly checking in with our technology regardless of whether we have received an alert or notification—an external interruption—or we are musing about missing out on something in our virtual social world—an internal interruption—is akin to an obsession or compulsion, both of which are anxiety-driven issues. We have not sunk to the level of a psychiatric disorder like Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder but we are not far away.

Well, speak for yourself. I may in fact have sunk to that level. I do find myself absently — compulsively — checking my phone for messages and emails. And lately I’ve found that I often cycle through a check of other social media — Twitter, Facebook, Instagram — without really pausing to ask, 1) Why are you doing this? or 2) Do you have time for this?

So, I’ve taken some steps. The first, this product, which has already cleared out some of the distracting clutter of my inbox. Sanebox works well with iCloud and GMail, my two main email providers, and I can report that it’s working.

The second step was more Old School: I just turned off my phone. For a day.

But then I freaked out — Too far! Baby steps first! — and simply went into the Settings area and turned off all of the noises and tones and vibrations and alerts that used to cue me, like one of Pavlov’s dogs, to pull the phone out of my pocket and see what’s up.

Because, honestly, what’s up is what’s up in real life, in front of me. What’s up on my phone can wait.

Anyone else have a better strategy?